A SCOT'S LOVE STORY.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 83, 4 October 1924, Page 17

A SCOT'S LOVE STORY.

" Pink Sugar." By' 0. Douglas. London : ■ Hodder and Stoughtoa. /Delightfully Scotch iv atmosphere is '• Ping Sugar," by. the ' authoress of " Penny Plain," " The Setons,"." Olivia 111 India," and "Ann and Hor Mother.',' There is the same smiling tenderness that characterised those popular novels running through this humorous tale about a small hamlet to which comes .Kirsty Gilmour, comfortably rich and still young (remarkably so) and still free. It is an interesting series of character drawing, and those personages who lend romance and humour to the pages become lively people, as one reads on. Kirsty thinks she is a confirmed spinster, .but she is too lovable to remain in that state, for she. is.a born mother, a benefactor, a .radiant spirit that must be handed down for future generations to reverence.'_ To '" Little Phantasy " she comes, having been freed from the painful companionship of a. complaining stepmother. In this lovely glen of Uppor Tweeddale Kirsty rests, and verv,peacelul sho finds life, with "its setting, of scenery and its Border burn " that canna rin wi'oot a turn." The owner, of Kirsty's delightful home is a single man, a, returned officer with a'grudge ugainst life, and Our heroine has a hard taskto help him adjust himself to a lame leg and his memories of an awful period; with the help of three charming children vho come to Kirsty while their careless male parent tours abroad in ah endeavour to forget his girl-wife (and incidentally to find forgetfulness with another lady), the, readjustment'of Archie Homo is complete, and the little. Scotch miss is very prominent in the new order of things. , With a delicious sense of i:umour, the authoress has given us still another- of her wise little tales, full oi

fascination, pathos, and a facile wit. It iE ingenuously constructed, and "the descriptive work is very fine. It is a graceful addition to the novels of 0. Douglas.